Today, I want to show you how to spice up this chord progression by employing one little trick. I’m not even going to cover more chords just yet. I’m just going to show you how to spice up the 2 chords you already know from this example.

Want to know the secret?

Some of you may already know it…

The secret is the “9.”

(And this works for any slow, ballad-style song — especially worship music).

Now, some people call it the “2,” depending on how and where you’re using it. I’m not too much concerned with explaining that part right now. You can find tons of prior lessons on the terminology by searching for “ninth chords” or “add 9″ in my search box above.

But what is important is determining what the “9th” (or “2nd”) tone of your chord is.

Here’s how you find the magic 9 and then I’ll show you what to do with it.

Let’s look at our first chord, which happens to be a “C major.”

It obviously comes from the C major scale:

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

From yesterday’s post, you understand the importance of numbering your scale.

Notice, however, that the scale only goes up to 7. Let’s add another octave (basically repeat the scale a little higher).

C D E F G A B C D E_ F_ G_ A_ B_ C

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

(Don’t mind the little “_” underscores. I’m just using those to make my numbers line up with the letters. I can just see someone freakin’ out over that now! :-)… “Oh my gosh, what are those underscores!!!” Just joking…)

What is the 9th tone of the scale?

Answer: D

It’s also the 2nd tone of the scale so whichever way you want to look at it is fine. For the purposes of this lesson, the only important thing is that you know the NOTE to add. The 2 and 9 will always give you the same NOTE (although one is a high version and the other is a low version, technically).

So what do we do with this magic “9th” tone?

You guessed it.

We simply add it to our chord.

C major triad
C + E + G

C major with added 9
C + D + E + G

Some people even choose not to play the “C” because it will be taken care of with your left hand bass. If you prefer that sound, then only play “D + E + G” on your right hand with a “C” on your left hand bass. That will work too!

Ok, so let’s replace all our chords with our new chord and see what we get:

*Play the chord with your right hand and play the single bass with your left hand.

*This takes us perfectly to the beginning, where we start all over with our C major (1-chord).

Sounds good doesn’t it?

But we won’t stop there. Let’s add the secret “9″ to our 5-chord as well.

Simply go through the same process with the G major chord, determining it’s 9th tone (or 2nd tone).

The magic “9″ for G major should be “A.”

But if you recall from yesterday’s lesson, we intentionally inverted our “G major” chord so that “G” was on top. This provided a smoother transition between the two chords. We surely don’t want to mess this up by adding “A” on top so we’re actually going to add it on the bottom:

G major triad (inverted)
B + D + G

G major with added 9 (inverted)A + B + D +G

*For some, it can be awkward playing the “A” and “B” with separate fingers so some people just play both the “A” and “B” with their thumb. That’s right! You can play two notes with one finger. Musicians do it all the time! So if that’s easier for you, just let your thumb handle both notes.

Hi, I'm Jermaine Griggs, founder of this site. We teach people how to express themselves through the language of music. Just as you talk and listen freely, music can be enjoyed and played in the same way... if you know the rules of the "language!" I started this site at 17 years old in August 2000 and more than a decade later, we've helped literally millions of musicians along the way. Enjoy!

Oh yeah, and your video makes perfect sense. I was wondering how you went from not writing anything for a long time to doing daily posts. That video answers a lot. So im glad to be a beneficiary of your new found energy.

This added 9 trick is a very good tool. I use it all the time myself. The 9 can also be used as a grace note in alot of major chords too, which adds so much flavor to your playing. Listen to guys like Jonathan Powell. They use the 9 ALL THE TIME, lol. Be blessed.

Jermaine, I am LOVING these blogs. Whenever I get a notification in my e-mail that there’s a new blog that you’ve posted I can’t wait to see what new tricks I’m going to learn. You make playing the piano so much fun! Thank you SO much!!!

Hello Jermaine, I wanted to let you know, to be encouraged your labor is definitely not in vain, as you may already now. I appreciate the fact that you continue to push learning theory, not only that but you have broken it down to its simplest form so that anyone who desires to learn can do so with ease. I still can remember and still have the VHS tape (remember those?) of GospelKeys 500! It was given to me as a gift from a friend and that got me hooked on your system. Keep up the awesome work! God Bless!

oh i like this portion hear nad play in your web sites it’s good for the beginners and those w ho want to learn some akills in instruments god bless you all there i have no more comments on these because it’s good you know that folks and friends

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